76ers remain game despite James Harden cloud hanging over franchise

MILWAUKEE — Where are the fissures in this foundation? Where’s all the chaos and confusion that’s supposed to befuddle any NBA franchise when a displeased James Harden, who successfully forced his way out of two previous situations, no-shows team activities and then shows up unscheduled?

The Sixers arrived for shootaround at Fiserv Forum on Thursday morning, and Philadelphia players lined the floor where their sneakers had already been positioned by equipment staffers around the sideline. They laced their shoes and went to work. Later that night, they fell behind by 19 points to Milwaukee in the second quarter of their season opener, only for Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Tobias Harris and free-agent signee Kelly Oubre to claw back and claim a fourth-quarter lead.

The Sixers ultimately fell 118-117, succumbing to the first of what’s sure to be many crunchtime classics from Damian Lillard during his new tenure with the Milwaukee Bucks. That’s not to characterize Philadelphia’s opening night defeat as a silver lining, but to illustrate how this organization has stood, and plans to stand, despite Harden’s trade request and ongoing desire to instead dress for the Los Angeles Clippers. The Sixers plan to tug in one direction behind the league’s reigning MVP, regardless of whether Harden is in the lineup or not.

“I wouldn’t say it’s felt disjointed at all,” 76ers head coach Nick Nurse told reporters pregame. “I think our guys have been focused. Yeah, so we have to deal with it a few minutes a day, answer some of these questions, whatever. But it certainly has not seemed to faze our team in any way whatsoever. Either way. Not as a distraction or as a galvanizing moment. Nothing. They just have been focused and playing hard.”

Harden was absent from the Sixers for 10 days and then returned to the team for Wednesday morning’s practice before Philadelphia’s charter to Milwaukee that evening. When he rejoined the Sixers at their Camden, New Jersey, practice facility, Harden first met with Sixers vice president of athlete care Simon Rice and Nurse, league sources told Yahoo Sports, and it was Nurse who first informed the All-Star guard that Philadelphia preferred to monitor his performance load before greenlighting his return to game action.

And that meant keeping Harden back at the team’s South Jersey complex, replete with hot tubs and recovery pools and all the equipment necessary to make sure a 34-year-old with a history of hamstring injuries was capable of resuming NBA regular-season activity — without playing in the preseason or showing face for the better part of two weeks. Harden initially accepted the Sixers’ strategy, sources said, until he then appeared at the Tarmac on Wednesday night to board Philadelphia’s flight west. That was when Nurse and general manager Elton Brand reiterated that Harden was being asked to remain off the team’s two-game road trip to Milwaukee and Toronto, sources said, and Harden did report to the facility Thursday morning to go through on-court activity with the Sixers’ three two-way players and several staffers, including G League head coach Mike Longabardi, who lagged behind the traveling party specifically to aid Harden’s immersion into full activity.

The Sixers’ performance against the Bucks will only further embolden Philadelphia’s stance on trade discussions regarding Harden. Maxey scored 31 points with eight assists, cashing long balls and slicing through Milwaukee’s defense. Oubre was an efficient revelation, contributing 27 off the bench on 5-of-6 shooting from distance. And if Philadelphia was inches short of upending the club many consider to be title favorites, who’s to say how much ground can be gained with Harden back in the fold? At this point, under the league’s new Player Participation Policy and the collective bargaining agreement’s fine print, Harden is all but required to play for the Sixers once the team determines him healthy to perform, or else he’ll risk game checks worth north of $300,000 and be at the mercy of Philadelphia’s ability to control his upcoming free agency. By all accounts, Harden returned to the Sixers with the intention to take the court alongside Embiid and Co., not to disrupt and distract and get his way to Los Angeles once and for all.

That is partially why there remains a significant gap between president Daryl Morey’s asking price for his longtime counterpart and what the Clippers have been willing to offer. But as much as this standoff has been made about Los Angeles’ disinterest in including versatile forward Terance Mann in any package for Harden, or the Clippers’ apathy to parting with a second first-round draft pick to land the bearded All-Star, it's as much about Philadelphia’s — and Morey’s — patience to withstand any turbulence, knowing most flights simply land without further complication.

The Sixers’ insistence on also receiving Mann, sources told Yahoo Sports, is just as predicated on the fact Philadelphia officials learned Los Angeles offered Mann as part of the Clippers’ overtures to land Jrue Holiday from the Blazers as it is the Sixers’ valuation of the Florida State product. And for all the perceived pressure on Philadelphia to maximize the waning years of Embiid’s prime after his myriad maladies, the Sixers also see a Clippers franchise that has pressure to excel in its final season before moving into a new, expensive arena — all while Kawhi Leonard and Paul George could be playing their final seasons with the organization.

Two years ago, naysaying rival executives criticized Morey for not moving Ben Simmons before that season began. And yet Simmons sat and he sat, the Sixers held firm and come that February 2022 trade deadline, Harden himself suddenly became available for trade — when nobody was truly expecting his departure from Brooklyn during that season’s opening night criticism of Morey’s front office. Philadelphia is now betting another unforeseen All-Star could ask out just like Harden has, just like Harden did, between Thursday night’s loss to the Bucks and the next trade deadline.

The 76ers are also betting last season’s NBA assist leader, who opted into the final year of his contract before he’ll reach free agency, has plenty to play for in his own right. And then maybe another bidder will enter the fold, and the Clippers will no longer be able to take the position that they’re bidding against themselves.